Dave Seeley
"Gabrellia #3 S~Curve" Oil Painting
2022

About the Item

Dave Seeley's (US based) "Gabrellia #3 S~Curve" is an original, handmade oil painting that depicts a nude female model standing in a contrapposto stance. About the artist: My subjects are inspired by glimpses of perfection in life, and my paintings are the products of a desire to realize those glimpses in an inherently imperfect way, as works of art. I strive for moments when the light aligns for a split second and all pain, toil, wants, worries, and lust, are forgotten in a flash of transcendent beauty that leaves me breathless. These glimpses imprint my memories, but remain motile as they fade and morph and blur with time… but still define how I felt in that moment. And that is indelible, even decades later. That’s what fuels the exploration for my imagery, and the results of that search are idealized, abstracted and stylized in oil paint to become the individual iconic objects that make up the body of my work. Fundamentally, the paintings speak for themselves, and in so doing, impart an emotional connection to the viewer that is uniquely personal, and, one that can differ substantially from my own. A painting can convey emotions that transcend words, but context can enhance a viewer’s connection, so I’ll share some history. I was born in Boston, and I’ve been making art for as long as I can remember. I have vivid memories of filling drawing pads with rapt kids gathered around at school recess: my childhood super power. A love of art, humanities, and STEM inspired me to earn a dual degree in architecture and fine art at Rice University in Houston. My program included a one year working internship at an architectural firm in Los Angeles. I reveled in the city’s rich and innovative architecture and arts culture, and the vibrant, diverse Venice Beach community where I made my home, visiting galleries and museums, and photographing street performers and bodybuilders. In the dozen years following college, I found success as a lead architect on major projects and garnered several national design excellence awards. I spent leisure time drawing the figure, painting and sculpting, and I regularly entered architectural competitions outside of my job, because they brought me more opportunity to design in a theoretical, abstract, and even whimsical way. I won a five-month fellowship to travel around-the-world, and my journey gave me the opportunity to see and draw amazing art works I’d studied, and so many more I was unfamiliar with, and they rocked my world. With a refreshed perspective, I decided to return to visual art, and slowly built a commercial career. I have been lucky to work with Lucasfilm, Sony, Marvel, Microsoft, Hasbro, Fox, Disney, and the top book publishers and advertising agencies. I taught at Rice, The Art Institute of Boston, and have had several solo and group shows of my artwork, culminating in the publication of my monograph The Art of Dave Seeley, in 2016. Concurrently, I’ve been selected for the annual juried Main Show of the IX Imaginative Realism art show for the past 14 years. Over that span, my focus has shifted from commercial to personal figure works. I bring to that pursuit, a fluency in the language of image making, with accents of pop culture, western mythology, the grimmest of fairy tales and when I’m lucky, the ethereal.

Creator:

Dave Seeley

Creation Year:

2022

Dimensions:

Height: 36 in (91.44 cm)Width: 24 in (60.96 cm)Depth: 0.25 in (6.35 mm)

Medium:

Canvas,Oil,Board

Movement & Style:

Contemporary

Period:

2010-